NEW TRIPOLI, USA: The top ten semiconductor metrology/inspection equipment vendors grew 29.5 per cent in 2011 while overall semiconductor front end (WFE) equipment grew 9.3 per cent, according to the report 'Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control in VLSI Manufacturing'.

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012:
Sub-28nm will drive the market in 2012. Whether there are indeed yield problems at foundry TSMC at the 28nm node, as reported by Qualcomm and Nvidia, or just tight supply on initial roll out of TSMC’s 28nm process, chip manufacturers are focusing attention on process control equipment and will be expanding capex at the 28nm and 20nm nodes.

In 2011, the top three metrology/inspection suppliers were KLA-Tencor, Hitachi High Tech and Applied Materials. For 2011, the Semiconductor Metrology/Inspection market outperformed the overall semiconductor equipment market, as it did in 2008 and 2005, growing only 24.8 per cent, compared to an overall growth rate of 9.3 per cent for the front-end equipment market according to preliminary findings.